What are free radicals?

Can clothing cause free radicals?

• I was wondering, if clothing can cause free radicals in the skin or body. The more I read about free radicals and static charge buildup that some people get usually mentioned as an effect of clothing and movement, the more this makes me think that clothing can cause a free radical. I mean if clothing steals an electron from the skin, causing a charge on the body as an effect. Then that means the body would have then lost an electron. Add to that people wear rubber shoes insulating the body from the earth, so it cant just replace that electron so easily, well point being if a molecule in the body loses an electron,,its then a free radical,,and then tries to steal one from another molecule,,causing the chain reaction that is mentioned as free radical damage. So what do you think?

• Answer:

  Free radicals in body chemistry are unrelated to static electricity. Your body can be overloaded with free radicals and be electrically neutral. Collecting a static charge will have no effect on the prevalence of free radicals in your body.